Walkies: Process (Patreon)

1. Pencils. I start with a rough sketch of the characters and then carefully refine them. I sketch each of the characters on a separate layer to make it easier to adjust the position and scale. Then I sketch in a backdrop. I actually drew the backdrop the other way around at first but I decided it looked better mirror-flipped so that the tree was less obscured by the characters.

2. Inking. I inked the backdrop and characters on separate layers so that I can color them separately.

3. Color Blocking. In Photoshop, I re-combine the inked layers and lay in the base colors. I try to keep the colors in the distance fairly desaturate so that they won't dominate the foreground.

4. BG Form shading. Now I hide the characters and start shading the background. First I'm just doing the basic form shading (linear burn on a greenish-brown color fill layer). I keep the shading on the buildings very simple since they're meant to fade into the background.

5. BG Cast shadows. Next I paint the cast shadows in the background. First I paint in the shadows cast by the tree. The shadow is speckled with light where the sun sun shining through the leaves. Next I paint in the more solid shadows cast by the bench and the characters. (I turned the characters back on to paint the shadows under them.)

6. Characters form shading. Now that the background is shaded, I turn the characters back on and start the basic form shading. I used a stronger contrast on the shinier clothes (the leather and rubber).

7. Characters backlight/reflected light. Now I put in a thin, bright, soft backlight on the characters, just on things that are shiny. It's strongest on the leather and rubber and a softer backlight on the satiny bows.

8. Character shiny. Now I paint in the shiny specular highlights on the most reflective surfaces - the leather and rubber, the chains, and so on. The leather gets a blurrier shine than the slick rubber.

9. Character Highlight. Since the characters are in bright sunlight, I paint a second layer of bright lighting to create a slightly washed-out look.

10. Characters cast shadows. Now I add in the cast shadows, just for the parts of the characters that are casting shadows onto themselves.

11. Characters environment cast shadows. Next I paint in the shadows cast by the environment onto the characters, which mostly means the speckled shadows of the leaves.

12. Linework coloring. Now I go back and color the linework. In the background, I just color the linework for things in the distance, using colors very close in brightness to the objects themselves, to give them a softer, muted appearance. In the foreground, I colored the linework on the flesh, hair, bows, rubber, and fur, using colors similar to the base color but darker and more saturate.

13. Final touches. Lastly, I paint in the eyelashes, add a little sparkle. To make the background recede, I add a contrast adjustment layer behind the characters, turning the contrast down with a gradient mask so the the background stays more strongly contrast at their feet but quickly fades at about knee-height. I also add a color balance adjustment to the whole image to make the highlights a little more yellow a direct sunlight feel.